Making your Linux router fit in with CISH

[ Thanks to Pim van
Riezen for announcement: ]

CISH is a shell and system control program for low overhead
Linux routers. Built on top of the LRP floppy distribution, it takes
over the system from the level of init and offers a configuration
system closely similar to that of large traditional routers.

The traditional Unix shell environment is a fine place to be in
when you are dealing with a general purpose server or workstation.
Routers and network firewalls, however, fulfill a much more
dedicated task. The configuration system used by CISH keeps all the
relevant settings together and offers extensive context-sensitive
help and command completion. This makes the shell extremely useful
when configuring complex networking parameters, but an absolute
dread if you want to use it to configure your Enligtenment themes:
In fact you cannot edit them at all.

With the release of version 0.9.0, CISH is now fully on top of
the Linux 2.2 kernel architecture. Through ipchains, extended
access-lists can be configured and bound to individual network
interfaces. Ethernet interfaces can be combined into a bridge
device, with support for the Spanning Tree Protocol. By replacing
the traditional boot sequence of the Linux/LRP system with a
special purpose version of init, the router can boot
faster and operate under tighter resource usage conditions.

You can find all the downloadable goodies, including a
ready-to-boot disk image, on the CISH website at http://www.tarball.net/cish.